WATKINSVILLE - U.S. Rep. Charlie Norwood told a crowd of Oconee County residents Thursday he is primarily concerned with making Georgia Highway 316 safer the fastest way possible.

''I just want to fix the dad-gum road and make it safe,'' Norwood, R-Evans, told a packed room in the Oconee County Library at a town hall meeting the 9th Congressional District representative held.

Norwood came to Oconee County mostly to hear what people who use Ga. 316 have to say about the possibility of it becoming a toll road in the future.

''I'm not going to come down here to tell you what needs to be done,'' Norwood said. ''We're going to end up doing what the people want us to do, and you can take that to the bank.''

Norwood is requesting a $21 million allocation in the federal 2005 Transportation Appropriations Bill for improvements at two intersections on Ga. 316 - part of what he calls ''Plan B'' to bring the road up to interstate highway standards.

''Plan A'' is a proposal by the Parkway Group, a group of four highway contracting companies, for a $1 billion privately financed plan to transform Ga. 316 into a limited-access, interstate-style highway by 2011. The plan calls for a one-way toll of $4.60 for a trip between Athens and Atlanta. Going part of the way would cost less.

Norwood said Thursday he wants his plan to be used as a backup in case everything does not work out with the Parkway Group proposal.

Norwood said many people have expressed concerns to him about the price of the toll.

''The issue that keeps flaring up to me is the price of the toll,'' he said. ''Personally, I think there would be a high value in a $5 trip, and I will have to pay it as well, and I will often.''

Kay Dillard, an Oconee County resident and the principal of Auburn Elementary School in Barrow County, told Norwood the price of the toll would get expensive for her, and the possibility of having to find another job concerns her. ''Five dollars one way might make me rethink working in that area,'' Dillard said. ''That's $50 a week, and I am a 12-month employee, so that's a significant amount of money.''

David Wood, an Oconee resident who works in Atlanta designing Web pages, said he is most concerned with using the highway during construction.

''When you have a major construction project, it is a hassle to the motorists who use the road, and then after this particular hassle you will eventually have to pay $4 every time you use the road. It's a lose-lose situation,'' Wood said.

Norwood told the crowd the improvements would get finished much faster under the toll-road plan; publicly financed improvements managed by the state Department of Transportation could take 20 years. He did say he thinks a consensus among area residents is building against a toll road.

Norwood said he wants to continue to hear input from citizens and will work on his ''backup plan.''

''In the meantime I'm going to try and get a free road that might take forever to build,'' he said.